Gai Sensei and Me
by ame-ame
Summary: ...but the last of the alcohol my deeper thoughts, because everything is easier when you’re just a nameless face in a sea of bodies. [No real pairings.][Songfic.]


Erm.. Not much to say about this. Drabble? Most likely. But it needed to be done, kyuu. And I knew if I sat back, it would happen eventually, but I'm lazy and impatient, so I shall write it myself. Go me.

Disclaimer: I don't own the song 'Mr. Jones' by Counting Crows, and I most definatly do not own Naruto. No, I have to be satisfied with writing lame fanfictions. I'm a sad person, and no manga-ka. Trust me.

Warnings: None, really. Just watch out for large doses of thick eyelashes and big eyebrows. –pinches Chibi-Rock Lee's cheek- He's great anyway. Oh, and if you reeaallly want to, you MIGHT be able to take this as shounen-ai. –audience g4sp0rz- Yea, I know. Normally everything I write is chock-full of it, kyuu.

And without further ado, people, my lame story.

**Gai-sensei and Me**

By Sabishii-sama, who, contrary to popular belief, is not dead.

_Sha la la la la, yeah..._

I don't know how I got here. I don't know how I ended up in a club, hat on my head shadowing my eyes, staring at Sakura-chan chatting with Yamanaka-san out of the corner of my eyes. I think it might have something to do with the man sitting over at the bar, chatting animatedly with some black haired chick, dressed, no, disguised in tight pants and a loose shirt, his pearly white teeth reflecting off every piece of glass in the vicinity. It also might have to do with the alcoholic drink in my hands.

_I was down at the New Amsterdam staring at this yellow-haired girl  
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation with this black-haired flamenco dancer  
She dances while his father plays guitar  
She's suddenly beautiful  
We all want something beautiful  
I wish I was beautiful_

I looked wistfully over to Sakura-chan again, but she still doesn't see me, so I take another swig of the bottle my hands have in a death-grip. Even if she saw me, I wouldn't be Rock Lee, her biggest admirer. I would just be somebody in the crowd. Why was I here in disguise again? Oh yea, because otherwise, she would see. They would all see. I wouldn't be just a body in a crowd, I'd be different. Sometimes, I just wish I wasn't different. I wanted to be the same—the same as Neji, as Sasuke, as anyone worthy of her gaze. That just made my body spin and rock faster to the thundering beat, in a sea of people, as I down another large sip of my alcohol.

_So come dance this silence down through the morning  
Cut Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances_

As the rest of my drink burned down my throat, I looked over in Gai-sensei's direction to see him coming over towards me, annoyance burning in his eyes and a drink in his hands. He roughly shoves it at me, and even though I can tell it's from drunkenness, it almost hurts; until he grins and shoves us back in the crowd. Toward Sakura-chan and Yamanaka-san. "Isn't that what you came for?" He laughs into my ear so as to me heard over the crowd, and for a second, I feel stronger.

_Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones  
Believe in me  
Help me believe in anything  
I want to be someone who believes_

A second, some strength, and an extra shot of vodka is all it takes to have me off in the girl's direction, hat down over my eyes, baggy clothing hiding my lean figure. I gently grab her arm, blushing, as I nod at Yamanaka-san before dragging Sakura off into the crowd. From her giggles, I can tell she's pretty drunk as well. That, and she can't tell who I am. As I drag her off into the crowd, toward Gai-sensei, I can dance next to her, feeling her breath in my ear, and the lights throbbing in the sky, and it all feels like a dream. I can't wait to tell Gai-sensei all about it. He'll be so proud of me.

_Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales  
Stare at the beautiful women  
"She's looking at you. Ah, no, no, she's looking at me."  
Smiling in the bright lights  
Coming through in stereo_

If only... I bite down hard on the thought. No 'if only's. It's not allowed when I'm dancing next to the girl of my dreams. I still don't know how I got into this mess. I don't know if I ever will. But in the last bits of my hazy sanity, I wish she was dancing with Rock Lee, instead of this stranger in a crowd that she'll never see again. But the last of the alcohol erases that, because everything is easier when you're just a nameless face in a sea of bodies.

_When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely_

Is it so bad to be yourself? Just this morning, I was Rock Lee, and everyone knew. Now I'm not, and no body would ever know, besides me and Gai-sensei. I don't know why—why I was pretending to not be who I am, hiding anything that makes me, me, and erasing what I was known for. Why Gai-sensei was helping me erase myself, when he was the one who made me. If I wasn't what I have become because of Gai-sensei and his belief in me and my hard work and training, I might not have even had enough courage to like Sakura.

_I will paint my picture  
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray  
All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful  
Grey is my favorite color  
I felt so symbolic yesterday  
If I knew Picasso  
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play_

So here I am, in a drunken stupor, dancing with an equally intoxicated pink-haired beauty, staring off in the distance at Gai-sensei dancing next to the woman I saw earlier, as I saw someone glance at him oddly from across the room, and maybe I understood why...

_Mr. Jones and me look into the future  
Stare at the beautiful women  
"She's looking at you.  
Uh, I don't think so. She's looking at me."  
Standing in the spotlight  
I bought myself a gray guitar  
When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely_

Why he did this. Why he brought me here, even though normally, it went against all his high morals. Maybe...

_I want to be a lion  
Everybody wants to pass as cats  
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different reasons for that_

_Believe in me because I don't believe in anything  
and I want to be someone to believe_

I lightly wave to Sakura-chan, pulling my cap lower so as to hide my normal outburst of proud tears. The alcohol was going to make me blow my cover. Quickly, I made my way over to Gai-sensei, who left the girl he was dancing with to just lose himself in the crowd with me again.

_Mr. Jones and me stumbling through the barrio  
Yeah we stare at the beautiful women  
"She's perfect for you, Man, there's got to be somebody for me."_

I think that he wanted to erase himself for a night, too. The way that person looked at him, as he danced. Oddly. Disgustedly. Those are most of the looks we get. Maybe he wishes he was something more, sometimes. Maybe, he too, will live with substituting being something less.

_I want to be Bob Dylan  
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky  
When everybody loves you, son, that's just about as funky as you can be_

But as I look around and the night wears on as the alcohol wears off, I make my decision. I quickly grab Gai-sensei by the wrist and drag him out the door of the club. Stumbling through the foggy, starry night air, we seem to be so much closer to the stars than when we had lost ourselves, and somehow, I take that as a sign that I did the right thing. I think that, maybe, being Rock Lee might be enough. Maybe I can be good enough, and I think that as I look back on what I've been taught and what I've done, I laugh out loud and strip down to my normal green jumpsuit, taking off my cap—and throwing my disguise on the ground. Somehow, being me might be enough.

_Mr. Jones and me staring at the video  
When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me  
We all want to be big stars, but we don't know why and we don't know how  
But when everybody loves me, I'm going to be just about as happy as can be_

...and if I have someone as great as Gai-sensei behind me, I think it might have been all along.

_Mr. Jones and me, we're gonna be big stars.._

The End.

Press teh shiny purple button. I know you want to. –mercilessly bribes with writing more often-

Ja!


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